Anime Life, How to Survive
by Mullkkkkkk
Summary: Have you ever woken up in a bed that wasn't yours? Ok, how about without having consumed any alcoholic beverages? This is the story of a young woman thrown out of her own world and into one she has next to no knowledge about. Not your usual "Fan goes into their fav anime world fic" OcxHakuba OcxNobody
1. Ch 1 Dafuq happened to my hair?

_Have you ever woken up in a bed that wasn't yours? Ok, how about without having consumed any alcoholic beverages? Yeah, thought so. This is the story of a young woman thrown out of her own world and into one she has next to no knowledge about. This is the story of Gabrielle Ojanen._

At first she didn't notice anything out of place. She woke up, put on a baggy black T-shirt with Ed and Al from FMA Brotherhood on it and a pair of faded green jeans before she went into the bathroom. Even then she did not notice anything since her mind was slow from just waking up. When she looked in the mirror, however, something clicked. Her reflection didn't match her look from yesterday.

Instead of short and spiky neon green hair, blue eyes and freckles she could see a pale face with blue eyes and long, curly black hair. Her first reaction was to take a pair of scissors and cut it. And cut it she did. Only once her hair only reached halfway down her neck did she put away the scissors. Now that the awful hair had been dealt with she noticed something else, she looked like an anime-character. She didn't recognize the style, though, which was bad.

Well, she _could_ tick off all the animes she actually had watched or seen a little of, meaning Pokémon, Digimon, Naruto, One Piece, Dragonball Z, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Death Note, Sailor Moon, High school of the dead, Claymore, Psychopass, Darker than Black, D. N. Angel, Ragnarök, Gintama and Red Data Girl. This left many animes but taking into account that the bathroom looked modern but not too modern or strange meant she was most likely not in a fantasy world anime, which was good. The fact that she had the same clothes she'd had before waking up was even better, this could also mean that she was in an anime that took place in "the real world". This meant there would most likely be no magic or super-hi-tech stuff. Now to look for clues about her whereabouts.

Scouting the floor she was on revealed her dream room, her sister's dream room, her sister's dream bathroom, her sister's dream studio and a guestroom with two double beds. Downstairs was also as if from a dream. The livingroom had two black leather couches facing eachother, a black coffee table in between them, a flat-screen TV on the wall, two black leather TV chairs that she'd seen in FRIENDS and three different gaming consoles along a bookshelf full of games and DVD's. Another room looked like a study, full of all kinds of books and a filing cabinet, the desk was made of dark wood and the chair was a black spinning chair which looked comfortable, in front of the desk was a coffee table with a brown leather couch on either side. Curious, she made her way over to the cabinets and looked inside. There were a number of files, she took out a random folder and opened it. To say that what she found shocked her would be an understatement, she almost dropped the file. It was a file on a murder case which, apparently, _she had solved_. It wasn't that she doubted her ability to do so, but she had never been a detective as the file would suggest.

She sat in the chair behind the desk and pondered her situation. She was inside an anime world and apparently a successful detective born in Finland but had moved to Japan a month ago according to the papers on her desk. This made a memory pop up in her mind.

_Her sister was laughing and ranting at the same time, personally she called this laugh-ranting but no one would understand what she was talking about._

"_It is ridiculously easy to be a famous detective in Detective Conan, I mean come on, there's Shinichi Kudo, Heiji Hattori, Saguru Hakuba, Mouri Kogoro, the detectives in the gathering of detectives episode including the creepy smoker, the creepy old lady, the weird chef and the luminol woman, and then there's the creepy old guy in the theater episode, this adds up to 9, though it's ten if I count the Detective Boys, they can't solve anything separately so I count them as "one". Out of these people four are in Tokyo alone and Hakuba ain't even in Tokyo that much." she ranted, laughing all the way as she ticked off people on her fingers "Not to mention Ran deducing stuff in at least two episodes, Shinichi's dad who's a mystery novelist/part time detective and the guy with sunglasses in the 1 million yen robbery case episode. And then mixed people keep deducing like they're detectives, without actually being one."_

There was one anime which was now a high possibility of being the place she was in. She had next to no knowledge about that anime world. The fact that the house was in the Beika district, which really sounded like Baker street, did not help at all. Her sister had after all called the Detective Boys the "Beika street irregulars" because some FBI dude called James Black had said that in some episode. She only knew useless stuff. The only good thing about this was that the cases in that world would be easy, for her and her sister at least, to solve. No offense to Gosho Aoyama, but with her being pretty clever and her sister being a clever mystery nut it was unavoidable.

Once she sorted out these thoughts she stood up and continued to look around the ground floor. She found her sister's dream kitchen, a closet, a dining room, a bathroom and a hall which lead outside to the front door, there was also a backdoor but she wasn't investigating that right now. It was pretty much their dream house, at least from the inside, if the trend continued the outside would be painted black just because her sister wanted it to be so and she herself had no problem with it since it was not pink.

Speaking of her sister, she found the pregnant goth sleeping on one of the couches in the livingroom. Her, hopefully, blue eyes closed and black hair with blue highlights fanning around her head while covering her face. She was dressed in her "I'm not going outside" clothes which consisted of black sweatpants and a black t-shirt. Her sister liked to dress up just a little if she was going out somewhere. She wasn't a complete girl about it, she would just put on some jeans or a skirt, a top and some jewelry, all in black of course.

She came out of her musings and brushed aside some of the hair hanging in front of the 18-year-old's face. She'd had a hard time, the guy who impregnated her ran off and broke up with her and none of the guys she'd dated had taken well to her pregnancy. Not that the idiot who'd caused it had gotten away, oh no, Gabe had tracked him down and beat the shit out of him, good for her that the guy was so afraid of her so she was never caught. Logically she knew she should feel bad for beating him up, but unlike her sister he had done nothing to prevent the possibility of her sister getting pregnant.

But back to the present. Gabe, satisfied with her snooping, went out front to get the mail. In the mailbox were three letters which she brought inside. Sitting down on the other couch she looked through them. There was a bill, a "Welcome to the neighbourhood" card form an Agasa Hiroshi and a black envelope saying "Only for the eyes of detective Ojanen Gabrielle-sama" this sent an icy chill up her spine but her near-perfect pokerface did not waver. As she took out her leatherman to open the envelope with she heard a soft groan from the other couch. Instead of looking up she just started opening the envelope.

She heard a yawn, followed by a sleepy "_What's with the black envelope_, meitantei-san?" in their native language.

"_It looks like a case, but..._" she answered, also speaking Finnish.

The fact that her sister called her "meitantei-san" proved to her that her mind was calibrated to the Detective Conan world, so she wouldn't say anything about it being a fictional world.

Out of the envelope came a black letter with golden decorations along the edges and a check for two million yen. She ignored it in favour of reading the letter aloud.

"Due to your skills, you have been selected to join us at this meal. We invite you to a party for all great detectives." she read in Japanese before cocking her head "It's signed by: The shadow child that God abandoned." she continued in the same language

"The- the shadow child that God abandoned? Do you think?" her sister said in the same language.

"Maybe." Gabe replied, having a hunch about what would happen.

Her sister once gushed about an episode where a number of detectives were gathered at a faraway mansion or something, supposedly by Kaitou KID. This was the episode where her sister's anime crush would be. With his hawk, Watson. As if summoned by her thoughts a female hawk landed on the sofa behind her sister, where she now noticed a patch of what looked like the material used for the gloves people used if they handled birds of prey.

"_Oh, hi _Holmes_, awake from your nap?_" her sister asked, petting the bird.

"Mielikki_, why did you name the female bird _Holmes_?_" Gabe asked.

"_Because personally I don't like _Irene Adler_ and we both know I'm _Watson_, besides she won't get confused because I call you _Sherlock_, not _Holmes_._" Mielikki said, sticking her tongue out at her.

Gabe just smiled and shook her head before she read the letter again. Slowly, a smirk formed on her lips.

The game... was on...


	2. Chapter 2 Bloodsplatter Mansion

The drive seemed to take forever and Gabe had fallen asleep more than once. Right now she was looking through her backpack and was slowly starting to regret letting her sister pack for her.

"_Why would I need luminol? Scratch that, how do you even have luminol?_" she asked her sister

"_Do you really want to know?_" was the immediate response.

"_No, not really, plausible deniability and all that._"

"_Exactly._"

Luminol wasn't the only questionable item she had, there was also an anesthesiac, a box of emergency food rations, a knife, a miniature saw, vinyl gloves, a pair of white gloves, lock-pics and a coil of rope, of course her sister had packed mars bars, a beautiful magnifying glass and a clean set of clothes in there too so she couldn't really complain.

She absently petted Holmes' head, who was sitting comfortably on her shoulder and preening her hair, Gabe had joked about her trying to make a nest in her hair but now she wasn't so sure about the bird's intentions. Normally it would've hurt her shoulder to have the claws digging into her, but all her shirts had padding inside the shoulders, possibly done by Mielikki so that she wouldn't have anything to complain about. Before long they made it to a wooden bridge where her sister stopped the car, looking nervous.

Gabe smiled, knowing of her sister's phobia of wooden bridges, and opened the door, shooing Holmes off her shoulder "_Don't worry, I can walk to Sunset Mansion from here, you just get home safely._"

Mielikki looked grateful and worried at the same time "_If you're sure, how are you gonna get back?_"

Gabe shrugged "_Hitch-hiking will work, won't it? Don't worry, a 21-year-old like me can take care of myself._" she said, closing the door "Ja ne!" she called, jogging across the bridge.

It was fairly quiet, though when taking into account that she was walking through a forest on top of a cliff, it was understandable. The sky was starting to darken and she could feel rain coming, something both she and her sister had inherited from their mother. She made it to the mansion before the rain could start though. She straightened the collar of her dark blue button-up shirt and brushed away the dirt off her black dress pants, she was also wearing black flats she'd borrowed from her sister because she herself didn't have any fancy shoes at the moment. When she was sure she looked presentable she knocked on the door and waited for someone to open. Looking behind her she could only see two cars, a white and a red one. She looked back when the door opened, a friendly looking woman with brown hair and eyes with freckles stood before her and welcomed her inside.

The inside of the mansion was as impressive as the outside, the walls were a soothing green, the stairs were wooden with red-brown carpets on them and the floor was covered in big, shiny, purple tiles. She had to hand it to the anime drawers, they sure knew how to pick colours.

Gabe turned to the maid and smiled "Have we been assigned rooms, or can I just pick one?" she asked kindly.

"Ah, I'll show you to your room." The woman said, sounding nervous.

Gabe followed the kind woman upstairs and after she'd been showed to her room she thanked her and went in. It was in the same colour as the entrance hall, though the floor was red carpeted, not tiled. She set down her olive green mil-tech backpack and sat down on the bed, sighing and putting her head in her hands. What was she doing? She'd never done anything like this before. Gabe had never done something so reckless, sure she had some sort of detective career here but she hadn't lived through any of it. Why did she think she could do this? She sighed again and lifted her head, well, there was no going back now.

Arming herself with the luminol spray-bottle, which hung by a hook from her beltloop, and the gun which had been hidden under her pillow for some reason, which she'd tucked into her sock, she went to investigate. The only reason why that one woman would've needed luminol and the only reason why Mielikki would've even mentioned it was if it was needed for something. Luminol reacts with blood, so somewhere there had to be bloodsplatter that would be important for the plot. And so her snooping began, conclusion, there was blood _everywhere_ and she meant _everywhere_. What the hell had happened at this mansion? She had passed a fat man in a white suit a while ago, she was pretty sure this was the guy who was gonna die but as she had never seen the episode she couldn't be sure. The rain had started, reflecting her darkening thoughts.

Soon enough she was at the entrance hall, just in time to see a creepy bastard in a green suit telling a longhaired brunette girl that the pattern on the door was most likely someone's dried up blood. Looking at the other three she could see an old lady in dark pink, a man with a moustache in a blue-purple suit and a kid with dark brown hair and glasses, he was wearing a light blue short-sleeved hoodie, blue shorts and red sneakers with a round knob on each. She knew these were the dials for his super-kick shoes and smiled faintly. Hello, Edogawa Conan. She came back to the present when the girl, Ran if she remembered correctly, refused to believe the creepy detective.

"Sorry to say, he's not kidding." Gabe said, spraying the railing she was standing next to "But I keep finding blood everywhere, this place should be called Bloodsplatter mansion instead of Sunset mansion." she continued as she looked at the glowing droplet-shapes on the handrail. Turning around she spoke once more "With this much blood everywhere I'd say there had to be more than two victims, though a fourth had to have been killed immediately at the door, since it's splattered in such a way." she explained as she hung the luminol from her beltloop once more.

"That's impressive." came a voice from above them and Gabe immediately looked up, spotting the source immediately, a handsome young man her sister's age with brown-blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a blue suit with dark brown dress shoes,a light purple dress shirt and a blue-green tie, a person she'd seen many times on her sister's computer. This youngling was Hakuba Saguru, half-Brit high school detective and hardcore Sherlock Holmes fan. Hakuba smirked as he once again started talking "Luminol. When luminol and blood combine, it turns to a purple colour. Isn't that right, detective of the North, Ojanen Gabrielle-san?" he said, descending the stairs.

Gabe smirked before she answered "Just Gabe or Oja-san, meitantei Hakuba Saguru-kun."

Hakuba raised an eyebrow, perhaps slightly taken aback by the fact someone recognized him "Nice to meet you."

Gabe heard Mouri sputter from behind her "Hakuba? As in the Police Chief Hakuba?"

"Yes, my father is the Police Chief Hakuba you're thinking of, Mouri-san." the boy said, finally making it downstairs, Gabe now noticed the glove on his hand and smiled as the boy whistled.

Summoned by the shrill sound, a hawk flew down and landed on the poised arm as Ran was startled by it "Ah, sorry if he frightened you. This is Watson. Since he has traveled with me so often, he likely sensed blood in the area." Hakuba said, smiling slightly. He then proceeded to mention a tragedy that had taken place at the mansion forty years ago.

They all went their separate ways then, either to freshen up, change clothes or snoop around. Gabe was one of those who went to snoop around. She knew she wasn't the only one when out of nowhere Watson landed on her shoulder. It came so unexpectedly that she actually yelled out and stumbled, before glaring at the bird.

"Mattaku, you scared me there, why are you even here? Where's you owner, huh?" she asked him in English as she petted him. She blinked when Watson started to sniff at her hair and she came to a realization, Watson was sitting where Holmes had been sitting earlier "Oy, are you sitting there because you can smell Holmes on me? Yeesh, maybe I can talk your owner into letting you meet her."

A whistle made Watson perk up and hop off of Gabe's shoulder and fly over to his owner, who was standing just behind the corner. Gabe followed the bird and leaned against the wall, observing the boy who was three years her junior.

"You know, I think Watson has a crush on my sister's hawk." she told him.

"Really? Well, he hasn't really had the opportunity to socialize with any of his own kind. I haven't met anyone else with a hawk as a pet." the half-Brit said, before continuing, perhaps a little embarrassed "Sorry if he startled you."

Gabe just shook her head "Don't worry, Holmes is way worse... and yes, my sister named her female pet hawk Holmes." she deadpanned.

They separated after that and, once Gabe was sure she knew where everything was, she made her way to the room she'd seen a pooltable in. Once she got there she could see Ran and Conan playing Poker, Mouri and the old lady playing chess and Hakuba and the creep playing pool. Making her way over two the poker table she sat down and asked if she could join them. After they consented they started talking.

"So, I'm pretty sure you remeber me from the hall, but I have no idea who you are." Gabe said, smiling slightly, trying to act friendly.

Ran answered immediately "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Mouri Ran, yoroshiku."

"Bokuwa Edogawa Conan-desu." Conan said brightly.

Gabe smiled and delt out new cards for the three of them. The game went on nicely, until...

"Yay! Straight!" Ran cheered as she collected her loot.

Conan was looking at her with a face that said "I'm never playing with you again." While Gabe noticed a little detail about Ran's cards.

"Oy, oy, Mouri. I don't like cheaters, especially when they aren't good enough to not get caught." she said, pointing at the card which was concealing another card.

"Sorry, I didn't see that." Ran said, starting to pry the two cards apart.

Once they were apart, however, she screamed and dropped the cards, making everyone rush over. Gabe stood up from her chair to look at the two cards, seeing the bloodstain which had been holding the two cards together.

"Told you there was blood everywhere." She said sardonically, poking the card that had been attached to the Jack.

Everyone on the room stared at her like she was insane, and by their standards she probably was, a little. It wasn't her fault she was morbid and had a slightly dark humor, personally she blamed her dad who let her watch all kinds of films and TV series. Part of her wondered if she should interact with them this much, since she had no idea what they were like. But then again, this would make her less suspicious, her not knowing things she shouldn't know. It was an endless cykle in her mind and with her getting easily stressed it was not a good thing.

The sound of the door opening scared Ran and startled the others except Gabe, who'd gotten used to abrupt noises since you couldn't go a day at her house without something making a huge noise. It turned out to be the maid, who informed them that dinner was to be served. Gabe wondered if the fat man would finally reappear again, since they hadn't seen him since he apparently yelled at the maid about the cook not being there. Gabe was sure that a cook had never been hired and the man only used it as an excuse to reassure everyone that the food wasn't poisoned. Gabe knew it wasn't, she had suffered through her sister explaining the whole plot to her one night when they were in bed at a shared room at a hotel and they _should've_ been sleeping.

When they entered the dining room Gabe almost stopped and gaped, _almost_. The dummy was wearing a purple hood with glowing red eyes that screamed of "evil megalomaniac supervillain in some fantasy show", or maybe "cult leader". Either way it was so out of character for Kaito KID she had no idea how detectives could actually even suspect it being him, come on, her sister said Hakuba was some sort of KID expert, how could he possibly be fooled when she herself, someone who knew next to nothing about KID, was not. She was suddenly understanding just how easy it was to be a detective in this universe. Everyone was stupid on some level and/or got sixth sense warnings about stuff that was happening nearby, that or they were cursed and people just dropped dead around them. Her sister had more than once joked about Kudo's "Shinigami powers".

Sitting down while the creep spoke to the dummy she let her head fall on the table, muttering about "cult leader wannabe" get-ups and how it was a fashion disaster. Not that she was up to date about fashion or even paid any attention to it, she did however know what looked just plain horrible.

Hakuba ended up sitting beside her while the fat man sat beside him and the old lady beside him, Mouri, Ran, Conan and the creeper sat at the other side of the strangely shaped table. It looked like a digital U. It looked like something her sister would want her to buy, come to think of it, the hood looked like a Halloween costume her sister would wear. So many dumb things... her head was hurting now.

"So, the reason I have called you six here is a simple one. I want you all to find the treasure hidden in this place. By risking your lives..." the recorded message said in a sinister way and Gabe suppressed a sigh, wondering just how much the fat man actually knew about KID. Not a lot she'd wager. She listened to the recording, bored out of her mind, filing away what was said and done by the people inside the room. The explosions came as a surprise but she didn't even flinch at the sound and only glanced at the fat man in white as he stood up to rage about the sound. She only listened with half an ear to what the recording said, not too interested in what it was saying, however, she did almost laugh when the creepy guy in green took off the mannequin's hood and revealed it to be a doll. His face was hilarious. The monologue continued and Gabe couldn't help but feel like she needs to hit everyone over the head, how anyone could even mistake this for kid was beyond her.

"Then, who is responsible for this?" Mouri asked.

Gabe couldn't help herself, she covered her eyes with a hand and sighed "Even if you have no interest in him I'm surprised you haven't figured it out." she said, looking up from between her fingers and laying eyes on Conan, who looked smug, he'd figured it out, then "The shadow child abandoned by God" she continued, taking her hand away.

"Shadow becomes phantom." the creeper said "Meaning something that appears invisible."

"A ninben symbol is used to denote an animal." the old lady continued "Say, like a cat or dog."

The fat man spoke next "The child abandoned by God" means a "yagi", like the one in the holy book. Here it is only a baby."

Hakuba was next to speak "In English, "yagi" means "goat." But this is a baby "yagi"..." he trailed off, opening his eyes "Kid."

"What!?" Mouri asked.

Gabe smirked "In other words, "The shadow child abandoned by God" becomes: "Kid the phantom thief."" she said, sitting back.

"That-" Mouri said

"Then, that means..." his daughter continued.

"Yes, the one that can take anything like it's magic..." the old lady said.

"The Moonlight Magician, the Heisei Lupin..." Gabe continued.

"That certain thing we detectives always await... The Main Dish." the fat man said.

"The one thief everyone wants to put away..." the creeper was next to speak.

Hakuba was the last with anything to say "And, out of all my cases, it was he who engineered one that I wasn't able to solve... Kaito Kid!"


	3. Chapter 3 Karasu, naze naku no?

**Well, I'm sad that I only have one review even though I have two followers and two chapters... you do know that reviews make the writer happy? But anyways,**

**IvyUnderCover****: Thanks! :3 I try. Hope you like this one!**

A brief silence descended upon the group of eight people and Gabe could see that the fat man was nervous or impatient, his pokerface was horrible. While to some, fiddling with one's moustache could be seen as someone being deep in thought, to her it told another tale, he was waiting for something. Hakuba was deep in thought, the creeper was irritated, the Mouris were speaking amongst themselves and Conan... Conan was was also thinking. Gabe narrowed her eyes at the kid, how could he know, but the Mouris didn't? Was the idiot really that stupid? With that thought she reduced the number of seven detectives to six, Mouri had officially been excluded from the category.

"Then, Kaito Kid is the one who invited us?" Mouri asked, looking completely and utterly confused.

The fat man, still fiddling with his moustache, spoke up "Yes, I'm sure he he intended to have us six detectives find the treasure for him. He's going so far as to wager our lives."

Gabe moved her hands off of the table, body tense. She might not be a Detective Conan fan, but even she somewhat liked the white-clad thief, her sister had insured that. She knew his backstory and some of his heists, she knew his profile and this was so ridiculously out of character that no one here should be fooled. Though, to be fair, one of the six detectives besides her, knew too. She once again looked at the much too smart first grader who, according to Mielikki, was a KID expert. She turned her gaze to the door when a knock was heard, the double doors soon opened to reveal the maid, who was probably there to serve dinner.

"Here is your meal." the woman said after bowing, before turning around to wheel the cart into the room.

"If this is to be our final meal, you better hope it's good, Mr. Chef." Gabe threathened, though the others took it for a joke and laughed slightly.

She was being serious, though. He better hope it was good or else Gabe would be in a bad mood for not being able to eat her sister's cooking.

When the maid was behind her, the old lady spoke up "Say, maid."

"Yes?" the maid replied.

"Did your master specify how he wanted the food to be placed on the table?" the old lady, Senma continued.

The maid nodded slightly before replying "Yes. But Hakuba-sama said it should be dealt clockwise."

Senma-obaasan turned back to her plate "Interesting, the game has only begun and he called it our final meals."

The fat chef laughed nervously and denied that the food could be poisoned, since he himself had made the food. This did not in any way reassure Gabe or Hakuba, though the two of them had different reasons for that. While Hakuba was dubious about the cutlery and the fact they hadn't chosen their own seats, a fact which Gabe only now noticed since she'd accidentally sat in the seat assigned to her, Gabe was worried the chef's hand had slipped some poison in the food, on purpose or not. Then again the man was a narcissist and would not ruin his "perfect" food. On another note, after pointing out the fact they had assigned seats and pondering whether or not they should wipe their cutlery, cups and glasses clean the creeper in a green suit suggested they play rock, paper, scissors for their seats and cry in heaven if they died.

Gabe stood up from her seat "Let's just get this over with, first we'll play for the seat on Speaker-san's right, we'll move counter-clockwise from there. Everyone ok with that?" she asked, taking charge as if she was organizing one of her sister's birthday party games when they were kids.

No one objected though she did get some strange looks when she said "Kivi, paperi, sakset!" when they played, to which she only replied "I'm not Japanese, remember?" and made a snip snip gesture with her fingers, having chosen scissors.

Their seating order ended up as the following, on the dummy's right sat the fat chef Ogami Shukuzen, the idiot Mouri Kogoro, the old lady Senma Furuyo and Kogoro's daughter Ran, on the dummy's right sat the half-Brit Hakuba Saguru, the brilliant first grader Edogawa Conan, the dimensionally misplaced Gabe and the seriously creepy guy in green Mogi Harufumi.

For all his bragging, the food Ogami had prepared wasn't that good. But then again she was picky, loved her sister's food and wasn't a professional food critic, however in her opinion it was bland and looked boring and the fact that it was well made had no impact on the food. She blankly watched as the people around her seemed to enjoy it and Mouri even complimented it at the end of the meal. She didn't see what was so great about it. When Hakuba asked what was wrong, the teen was too sharp in her opinion but as a detective he had to be, she only said that she'd much rather be at home. It wasn't the complete truth, there was going to be a murder after all and she had to set Hakuba up with her sister by the end of the night. Perhaps she could ask him for a ride home.

"Well, nothing's happened... yet..." Gabe remarked, dropping her napkin and leaning her chin on her hand, gazing around the room.

"So, have you all enjoyed the final meal that you've been served?" the speaker started up once more.

Gabe moved her hand from her cheek to cover her face "Fuck."

She could sense Hakuba and Conan looking at her, she'd forgotten both of them were fluent in English, though how Conan was fluent was beyond her, perhaps he was bilingual?

"I see, you're still here." Mogi said, sounding amused for some reason, perhaps slightly exasperated, she wasn't sure.

"Now I'll tell you why I took the time and money to call all of you here for this game." the speaker continued, strike one for the chef, Kid would never tell that he had to use money, everyone assumed he stole it so why should he tell them otherwise? "I would like all of you to look at your utensils at this time."

The people gathered around the table obliged to the thinly veiled command, Gabe sluggishly picking up a spoon to peer at the fancyish metal. She spotted a bird engraving on the end of the handle, it looked sinister. She immediately drew one conclusion.

"Karasu, naze nakuno?" she sang softly, lifting her eyebrow, her sister would love these... she wondered if the bird was on all the silverware. "_Too bad it's not a raven..._" she muttered in Finnish.

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	4. Ch 4 Suspicious suspicious,Senma-obaasan

**Well, here's the next one! Hope you guys enjoy, now for the reviews:**

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Anyone would've called the meal eventful, anyone would've called the riddle puzzling, anyone would've called the story eye-opening. Anyone but Gabe, that is. She was waiting for the main event, so she just sat in her seat, mostly ignoring the voice coming from the speaker, instead watching everyone's reactions. Watching, waiting. When the creeper in green pretended to have been poisoned Gabe had to restrain the knee-jerk reaction of punching him in the face, death was nothing to laugh at, especially if you were a detective that solved murders. Thankfully he sobered up when Hakuba called out the time of death. The Chef was dead.

Sniffing the chef's mouth Gabe quickly withdrew "Yup, cyanide, can't mistake that smell for anything else." she said, waving her hand in front of her nose to dissipate the smell, not wanting to damage her sinuses or get poisoned "Plus he's turning purple."

"Does that mean there was cyanide in his tea?" the creeper asked.

The old lady denied it, since her, most likely copper, coin wasn't turning shiny from the liquid. After an incident with the dummy, where the green-suited creeper got its head to fall off, revealing the dialogue was coming from a tape and making the situation even creepier than it already was, the smartest person in the room spoke up.

"We now know two things," Conan said "The fact that the criminal was aiming to kill Oogami-san from the beginning and that the criminal may be one of us."

"O-one of us?" Mouri exclaimed.

This time Gabe elaborated "Think about it, why else would there _need_ to be a recording, the criminal couldn't talk while all of us were in the same room which means one of us may be the culprit, of course it could just be an elaborate set up to make us even more anxious. The culprit could've created an alibi by sitting with us and eating with us..." she trailed off, suddenly getting unsure, since she wasn't actually a detective, afraid there were gaping holes in her reasoning.

Her fears were laid to rest when no one called her out on her reasoning, instead Hakuba started speaking "And without any of us noticing, the criminal slipped Oogami-san cyanide. In front of us five detectives."

Gabe spoke absently "Yeah, five... we're not counting Mouri, right?" she asked cheekily.

"Hey!" Mouri yelled, to which Gabe retaliated by sticking out her tongue.

Conan looked at Ojanen-san with an unreadable expression. Not sure what to make of the statement. Who was she counting in if she was leaving occhan out? The only ones available were him, Ran and the maid.

"Not only that, but seeing with the tape, the murderer knew exactly when Oogami was going to die." Mogi-san said.

"And no cyanide was found in his cup." Senma-obaasan continued.

Ojanen-san hummed, peering at the cup with narrowed eyes "We can't exclude that the poison was on the outside rather than the inside... but without a lab or at least a microscope or something that reacts with cyanide we can't be sure, and I am not licking the cup to make sure." she then moved the cup away with her sleeve-covered arm "Heck, I'm advising you not to touch it under any circumstances, in fact, touch nothing without wearing gloves, just to be sure. I have a packet of vinyl gloves with me, but please don't ask why, I wasn't the one who packed my bag."

Conan was starting to realize that this woman was very strange, but not as strange as some people and Conan didn't find her obnoxious, at least not yet.

"But we're talking about Kaito Kid, right? I thought he doesn't kill people." Ran said.

This got a reaction from the other foreign detective, she straightened up and glared at the girl "Why don't you think logically for a moment, girl! Do you really think Kaito Kid, the man who pulls elaborate magic-show heists that are flashy and different every time, would use something as mundane and mainstream as cyanide to kill someone?" she asked with a sneer "If the thief were to kill someone it would be flashy, elaborate and you wouldn't find evidence of what actually killed them. Kid is mildly narcissistic, a magician, practically everything he does screams "look at me and my genious" this," she gestured at the dead man "is anything but, this is a show of power, an intimidation, the culprit wants us to be afraid. Kid wants people to smile, get annoyed or laugh and he wants to laugh along. Sure he could be devolving but this is ridiculously out of character and everyone here knows it but doesn't want to look deeper when a scapegoat is so easily served on a silver platter."

Gabe wanted to slap herself but refrained, wondering just how much she'd just ripped from Criminal Minds. She then sighed at the hurt look on Ran's face.

"I'm sorry, I just get angry when people don't realize stuff I find obvious and I really should stop thinking everyone notices the same things I do. This is why I am horrible at group projects." she quipped, trying to lift the mood.

It didn't work that well but Ran Mouri was a very forgiving person, a thing Gabe wasn't sure she liked, but maybe she'd get along with Mielikki... now there's a thought, she could get Mielikki and Ran to befriend one another and she'd have a perfect excuse to babysit Conan. Genious.

Pulling the girl aside as they were walking outside to see if the explosions were duds she apologized again "I really am sorry, but Ran-chan, can I ask you a favour?"

Ran looked at her with confusion in her eyes "What kind of favour?"

"When we get out of here, and we will, would you please come over and try to be friends with my sister, we just moved to Japan and she hasn't had the chance to meet anyone outside a grocery store. That and she didn't have many friends even back in Finland so it would mean a lot to me if I knew she had someone besides me to talk to, I can't be around all the time since I do get cases surprisingly often."

When it was needed Gabe prided herself in her silver tongue, a trait she'd inherited from her uncle, who was a lawyer. It was a cheap trick to get people to do what she wanted but sometimes she did it without even noticing. Sometimes she felt bad afterwards but she was a manipulator and she couldn't stop. She was like a puppetmaster whose controls had gotten stuck to their hands. But she'd learned that if you wanted something you had to be willing to take it and to get it you needed to use your assets. It was sad that those assets made her a very undesirable friend but as long as she had her sister she was happy, and as long as her sister was happy everything was alright.

Once they made it outside they saw that all four cars that had been parked up front were burning. Which meant the explosions hadn't been duds.

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised. This whole thing has so far been well planned so it was expected." Gabe said with a sigh.

When the gathered detectives identified their cars Gabe noticed something, there was one car too many. She held up a finger as she brought this up "Hold on a sec, I didn't bring a car and I'm pretty sure Hakuba-kun isn't old enough to drive, so whose car is that one?" she asked, pointing at the car furthest to their right.

That got the other people's attention and they too asked whose car it was. According to the maid it had been there from the start, so it was probably the murderer's car. Then it was discovered that the maid's car was still fine and functional, so that could be used to go and check the bridge. The only problem was that everyone except Gabe, Ran, the maid and Conan wanted to leave and do it. Conan solved that problem easily, dumping five coins on the car's hood. Gabe noted that Senma took the copper coin, having to stretch to take it, instead of one of the coins closer to her. Suspicious, suspicious, Senma-obaasan. She wondered why the copper coin until it hit her, copper becomes shiny when it gets in contact with cyanide and Senma had a similar coin she'd tested the tea with, she was cheating! That explained the fake-suicide her sister had mentioned. She smirked before looking away and spotting a car with an X on the roof. Her eyebrow rose and she glanced at the others, seeing Hakuba smirking and Conan looking at him discreetly. So it was a car Hakuba recognized, probably whoever had driven him there was in that car. Maybe he could send a note with Watson... though basing by the smirk on his face he was going to do that, so she saw no point in suggesting it.

"Let's go inside, we'll only catch a cold if we stay and wait here." Gabe said, jerking her head towards the mansion.

As they started walking inside Gabe took Conan and lifted him onto her shoulders, wanting to get somewhat familiarish with him and get into his good graces. She felt him grabbing hold of her hair and smiled even though it twinged when he pulled it a little.

She could practically feel his questioning gaze so she said lowly "I was gonna go look around and I could use another set of eyes, since Hakuba seems like a lone wolf and Mouri and the maid don't seem to be detective types I thought you might want to. Whadda ya say?"

There was a beat and then an enthusiastic agreement from the kid, causing Gabe to smile widely.

Conan couldn't believe his luck, he'd wanted to go and investigate their surroundings more but couldn't think of a way to get away from Ran, now the opportunity had presented itself on a silver platter. He wondered why she didn't just go alone but felt there was no good, subtle way to ask, she might just not want to be alone at the moment.

"Ran-chan? Do you mind me borrowing Conan-kun?" Gabe asked.

When Ran looked like she might say no Conan brought out the "puppy-eyes" and pleaded "Please, Ran-neechan?"

This made the girl cave and Gabe happily trotted inside, where she let him down, saying "I saw a room with a piano, but I didn't have time to investigate it yet. Ikuso."

It didn't take them long to find the room. There Gabe just stared at the piano for a second, before walking around it and peering at it from every angle.

"You wanna know what I'm thinking?" she asked Conan.

"What?" he asked in return.

Gabe gestured at the big black lid of the piano "This is perfect for someone to have written something in blood on this surface. Though it could just be my imagination." she said before starting to spray the entire lid with luminol "Get the lights for me, would you?"

When Conan turned off the lights there was a brief silence as they both stared at the message, before Gabe said "Well, whadda ya know? I was right." she then squinted and said "Wait a- does that say Senma Kyosuke?"

"Yes." Conan said.

"As in Senma Furuyo?" Gabe continued.

"Yes." Conan replied again.

"Then... I might actually be right..." Gabe muttered, straightening up.

"Right about what?" Conan asked.

Gabe turned to him, looking unsure about something, before crouching to look him in the eyes "Did you notice the coin she picked?"

Conan nodded, making Gabe smile "See, that's when I thought she might be the culprit, since she picked the same kind of coin we know she already had in her possession, meaning there's a high chance of her having cheated in the coin flipping. I don't know why yet, but we'll see when they come back, if she heard of the treasure from this possible relative then it would make sense for her to do this, kinda. Now what remains is the method of killing Oogami, but then I realized his nervous tick, biting his thumb, which he did right before dying, this gives me the location of the cyanide, the question is why it was still there if he wiped it off, unless he was sure somehow that he wouldn't die, the only way for him to be sure is to be old Senma's partner in crime, only to be double-crossed and killed." she explained with a small, devious smile, before frowning "Wait a second, why would she need to go to the bridge... unless... damn. C'mon." she said, taking hold of Conan's hand.

"Ah! Gabe-neechan, where are we going?" Conan asked as he barely kept up with the woman's semi-long strides.

"We're finding Hakuba-san."

After finding the half-Brit they discussed what to do once the others came back, Hakuba had spotted cameras all over the mansion. Gabe was a little miffed that she hadn't spotted them but you couldn't be good at everything. Though she'd have to be more observant in the future.

"I'm gonna go make fake blood packets, which is basically plastic bags filled with ketchup." Gabe said, heading for the kitchen, Hakuba and Conan following.

"Why?" Hakuba asked.

"Just in case we have to pretend to kill each other." the woman said before smiling sardonically "'And then there were none'." she continued in a dark tone.

Both Hakuba and Conan got disturbed faces at this "You have a very disturbing imagination." Hakuba called as he practically ran after her, Conan hot on his heels.

"I know!" was the answer he got "In this profession you need one!"

Conan got a deadpan look "She's actually right about that." he muttered darkly, wanting to facepalm once he realized that.

It actually would come down to pretending to kill each other, which Gabe was not happy about. She sighed as she sat on the stone steps while the other detectives discussed the whole situation. She had no good ideas, besides the fake-blood packets she'd made. In the end, the other detectives had it planned out pretty well, there was only one problem, how to get Senma to tell them the way out, as she was most likely just going to kill the person who did solve the code. But then the most unexpected person came up with the solution. Or perhaps not the most unexpected person, at least not in Gabe's case, but that was only because she knew the kid was much smarter than the majority of the people here. It was decided that they would "kill" each other, then Conan would present Senma with the solution to the riddle and since he was a kid, Senma would be more likely to tell him than she was to tell anyone else in the mansion. After this another problem made itself known, how to deal with Ran and the maid.

At this point Gabe sighed "I'll knock 'em out with a sedative and stash 'em in the ladies' room."

This earned stares in her direction to which she deadpanned "Don't ask, I wasn't the one who packed my bag."

This made the stares even more incredulous, though Gabe wasn't sure how. What she did know, was that the detectives were finding her very strange, which was good, this meant they would remember her for a long time. It was a little egoistical, sure, but she'd never really been noticed by anyone when she grew up, she and her sister always got mixed up and she grew tired of it, as did her sister. Gabe cut her hair and dyed it with vibrant colours while Miellikki changed her entire wardrobe into strange. This made them stick out and more importantly, people could tell them apart, even if they looked similar they would never again be confused with one-another. Jumping up from her sitting position she followed everyone in, it was showtime.

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	5. Ch5 A whole lotta airquotes flyin around

**Ivy****: I'll take that into consideration, hope you like this one.**

**Lucy****: Yay! A Criminal Minds fan!**

Even though it wasn't for real and all the guns were now filled with blanks Gabe was still shaking with adrenalin as she ran away from Hakuba's "corpse" after shooting him with said dud ammunition. She didn't let it show in her face though and instead rushed up the stairs to the room where they were instructed to go if they figured out the riddle. She carefully but speedily opened the door, finding a most likely poisoned needle in the knob and pretending to die, breathing shallowly and keeping her eyes open. What came next was a real test of acting-skills, she had to lay still, not blink, and not react to the things happening around her. Well, it would be something hilarious to tell her sister, "Hey, guess what? I had to play dead tonight! Also, I had to pretend to kill someone!" on second thought, not that funny. She heard the running footsteps of the two remaining men and soon enough Mogi and Mouri were in the room with her. Mouri was "shocked" by her "dead" body while Mogi "revealed" how she'd "died", man, there were a lot of air quotes about the entire situation. Mogi suddenly pulled his gun out and "deduced" that Mouri was the culprit.

"... and if it wasn't me... It had to be you, right?" he said, pulling the trigger, "killing" Mouri, who slid down the wall, holding his "bullet-wound."

Mogi then lit a cigarette and pretended to die from cyanide. Now came the tricky part, though Gabe hadn't realized it was the tricky part, how was Conan supposed to cut the camera-feed?

Apparently he had, since he walked into the room and said "All clear, you can move now." at which point Gabe took a deep breath, blinked and sat up.

"This has got to be my weirdest case yet." she said dryly.

Mogi and Mouri agreed with her as they stood up, Mogi offering her a hand which she only accepted since she was stiff from keeping herself in that pose for at least a minute or two. She would probably need moisturizing eye-drops after the whole ordeal. Something her sister possessed, since she used coloured contact lenses in her cosplaying.

"So are all the cameras cut off or just this one?" Gabe asked Conan, who was typing away at the computer.

"All cameras, we should probably go tell Hakuba-niichan that he can move now, then come to the dining room but you need to keep out of sight." he then moved away from the computer and said in a very childlike voice "I should go now, can't keep Senma-obasan waiting." before swiftly trotting off.

Gabe stood there for a moment before shuddering "That was creepy." before she followed Mouri and Mogi out of the room to go and get Hakuba off the floor.

After fetching the half-Brit they made their way to the dining room, soon enough as they neared the room they could hear Conan's voice through the slightly open doors. Gabe had to admit that the kid sounded very convincing and like a real detective. She could now see where the show got it's name. Though she did wonder what the hell Shinichi Kudo had to do with any of it. She hadn't paid that much attention to what her sister had been saying when she'd told her the plot of the show. It was something about two guys in black codenamed after alcoholic drinks getting seen by Kudo, Kudo disappears since they think him dead, Conan appears, is way smarter than most adults, Kudo comes back at random intervals, Conan knows Kudo, there's a big secret because Kudo can't tell anyone about the Black Organization, Conan knows secret. She never really paid attention, since she was never going to watch the anime. Now the fact was giving her a headache. She shook herself out of her musing just as Conan finished with explaining the meaning of the riddle, the others jumped slightly at the sound of the clock jumping off the wall and falling to the ground while Gabe just stood there, wanting to see how things would play out.

"The paint chipped off and there's gold. That must mean this clock... I see! This clock is pure gold!" came Conan's voice and Gabe's eyebrows shot up, a clock made of pure gold, wow.

"My, my, it seems my father died for only this... Our real world is too cruel." Senma said.

"Like you promised, Senma-san: where is the way out?" Conan asked, completely serious.

"There is no way out." Gabe had to bite back a sigh of disappointment, what a waste of time "I planned to just die here. Oogami-san must've believed me when I said I'd tell him after the meal."

At this point Gabe pushed the other door open "Man, that sure was a waste of time." which made Senma whirl around, wide-eyed.

"What am I supposed to do about my best suit?" Mouri asked.

"That's why I said I didn't like this scheme." Hakuba said as he wiped his mouth.

Gabe looked back at them dryly and said "Oh, man up, ketchup comes out when you wash it. Be glad I didn't have _real_ fake blood with me, now _that_ leaves a permanent stain. Besides, the kid's idea was better than any of yours." she pointed out nodding at said kid, who smiled innocently.

Senma looked to him, then at them "Did you do all of this just to ask for a way out?" she asked, gobsmacked.

Gabe deadpanned "Yea, give us some credit, detectives should know better than to idly dish out death when we've seen so much of it."

Having said that, Gabe let the other detectives take over the show, exhausted from having to play detective. She sat back and let the others explain how they figured it all out, thinking about the whole evening. She had to admit, she could get used to such an exciting lifestyle, especially if she could hang out with Conan while doing it. She started to snicker when the others started to give Hakuba a hard time about not telling them about the message he'd sent off with Watson. Conan meanwhile was listening to the sound which had started to overlap with the sound of the Police helicopter that Hakuba had called. It sounded like crumbling. He looked up when Gabe took his hand and started to lead him towards the rooms they'd been assigned. They first stopped at a door which Conan assumed was Gabe's room and was proven right when the woman picked up a military-style backpack before exiting the room.

She then looked down at him "So where's your room? We can pick up you guys' luggage so that Mouri-san and Mouri-chan don't need to come up here again."

Conan blinked up at her before leading her to the room they'd been given and grabbed his bag before watching as Gabe hefted the two other bags on her shoulder and marched out, though before they went down she entered another room and took the baggage that was there, only then did they go downstairs.

"Whose bag is that?" Conan asked.

Gabe spoke as she set down all bags which weren't hers "Hakuba-kun's, he's already getting fried by Mogi and Mouri-san, so I thought I'd do something nice for him. I brought down Mouri-chan's bag so that she'll be a little more forgiving about the ordeal, even if she's really forgiving anyways."

Conan sweatdropped at that, never having understood how Ran could sometimes be so forgiving, but was grateful for it, it meant he didn't get into as much trouble with her as he could if she wasn't so forgiving. Not that it meant she was any less scary when angered.

It didn't take long for them all to have piled inside the helicopter. Conan, Ran, Gabe and Hakuba were sitting in the "backseat" while the others were in the middle seat behind the pilot. Conan was getting ready to tranquilize KID, now that they were on their way to safety. He had no idea that Senma was about to jump out of the chopper. He cursed when the fake Kogoro jumped out after her. Gabe had almost gotten a heart-attack, or at least it felt like it, when the two had jumped but instead lost control of her pokerface when she saw the hang-glider. She then looked from the watch to the figure and she realized why the kid had been fiddling with it.

"Damn... wait a second... Ran-san," she said, turning to the girl "if that's KID, where's your father?"

At first there was silence, until Ran cried out "Eeeeeeh?!" as she too realized this fact.

Conan got a deadpan look on his face, which he often wore when talking about Kogoro, and said "He's probably at the gas station, since that's the only place where he could switch without much suspicion."

Ran smiled in an embarrassed way "You're probably right."

"What? A flat tire? Are you alright, Baaya?" Hakuba asked into his phone, which was now working since they were flying lower in order to reel Senma-san in without having to be afraid of her dying if the cable snapped, not that it was likely, this was KID they were talking about, after all.

After some more talking Hakuba hung up with a sigh "Bugger." he said in English.

"What happened?" Gabe asked.

"Baaya's car got a flat tire and has to stay here to get it switched, but she's been up all night and I really don't want her to drive... but that means I have to go home alone and I... can't... cook..." he explained with a pained look.

Gabe fought to keep the grin off her face, you gotta love Deus ex Machina. She slung her arm around the younger detective sympathetically "Ah, I see, well then, you just come with me and I'll let you stay in the guest room."

Hakuba looked at her strangely "Are you sure that's alright? Didn't you say you have a sister?"

Gabe gave him a deadpan look "She looves to cook, the more the merrier, if she finds out I _didn't_ help out a colleague in need she'd hang me by my feet."

Hakuba laughed nervously, obviously not sure what to make of that statement before agreeing reluctantly, Gabe could see why, he didn't know her that well but she guessed she was more appealing than staying in a motel or going home alone. She wasn't sure what to make of that thought as she petted Watson, who was annoyed at the turbulence and most likely the noise of the chopper. Sure, birds were meant to fly but not like this. With this in mind she thought of her sister's pet hawk and through that thought of her sister, wondering if she should call her. Nah.

"Are you sure it's ok?" Hakuba asked,

Gabe nodded "Positive, besides, it would be nice for her to meet other people, she'd not good at making friends you see. And her last boyfriend... let's just say he wouldn't want to see me any time soon." she said gravely.

Mielikki's last boyfriend had been one of the worst and had barely gotten away with just a black eye from Gabe. The boy had the audacity to accidentally rip the arm off of her sister's teddy and _laugh about it_. Sure, Gabe had overreacted, but that bear was precious to her sister and she never wanted to see her cry, that boy had made her cry and he'd paid for it. She was very protective of her sister. After some silence Gabe started to get bored, she wanted to annoy someone, that was fun. After some thinking she grinned before she started to sing Your horoscope for today by Weird Al. The horrified faces of the ones who knew English were hilarious.

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	6. Ch 6 of pink pistols and arcade asses

**TheLittleMoonChild****: Yay! A review! Though next time, could you specify what you liked? Plz?**

"If this is what you're like in a helicopter I do not want to go on a road trip with you."

"Oh, don't worry, though I do sing on road trips, I usually don't do it to annoy people, like in the helicopter."

"... I hate you."

"Great! Now come on, my sister is bound to be baking at the moment."

After giving their statements at the police station, Gabe had grabbed hold of Hakuba and started leading him to her house, while everyone else headed home or, in Ran and Conan's case, were only just getting back from retrieving someone from somewhere and then giving their statements. Boy was Conan going to be in for a surprise when he found out Gabe, unlike the others, had not downplayed Conan's performance one bit, even if Hakuba didn't do it purposefully, he was just slightly egoistic. Gabe found the teen adorable, which was a very strange way to describe him she knew but she couldn't care less.

She opened the door with a smile and was immediately assaulted by the smell of chocolate muffins. She grinned and looked back at Hakuba who looked dazed by the aromas, which made her giggle, she'd developed an immunity to the smells of the house, but a newbie like Hakuba would of course be entranced by the smell of her sister's baking. It was a gift her sister had, her baked goods could entrance anyone with a sweet tooth. Those who didn't like sweet things were not affected, after all, you couldn't change people just like that. With time, yes, with the snap of ones fingers, no.

"Imouto-chan!" she yelled as she took off her shoes and placed them in the shoe rack.

"Onee-chan!" came from the kitchen, immediately followed by her sister, who had flour in her hair and chocolate, powdered sugar and cocoa-powder on her cheek and forehead, making her look adorable.

She braced herself for the hug and didn't even stagger when Mielikki glomped her, most likely grinning like a maniac. Gabe could only imagine what Hakuba's face looked like at the moment. She felt Mielikki tilt her head and Gabe could imagine her looking at Hakuba and blinking her eyes at him, before she let go and stepped back.

"Who's your friend, neechan?"

"Ton nimi on Saguru Hakuba, se on kollega." (That's Saguru Hakuba, he's a colleague.) Gabe said in Finnish "Ja Enkku." (And an Englishman.)

"Jaa." (Oh) Mielikki nodded before the grinned and latched onto Hakuba's wrist "Come on, you'll love my chocolate muffins and I'll grab some food for your hawk, what's his name?" she started speaking in English.

Gabe could faintly hear Hakuba answering her sister but paid no mind, instead she snatched a muffin and laid on one of the couches, intending to nap after she'd eaten it. She secretly smirked, very proud of herself. If things went according to plan then Mielikki would have a new boyfriend by the end of Hakuba's stay, however long that might be.

It was weird how Mielikki could make people like her in a very short time. Gabe had stopped questioning her ability and just went with the flow. Gabe wasn't jealous of her talent, she only needed people to tolerate her, nothing more, nothing less. Of course this didn't mean that everybody liked her sister, she just had a talent of quickly befriending people who had the potential to like her. Gabe was once again a witness to her sister's talent as she looked at her and Hakuba chatting as if they'd known each other for months and not, she checked the clock on the wall, nine hours. If even that, she had no idea if Hakuba had slept after arriving or not. Though by the look of the near empty coffee pot which looked like it had been full she would have to say that he hadn't. Though he had eaten, at least, half of the muffins were gone already.

Instead of staying to chat, Gabe grabbed her green army jacket and left with a "Bye! I'm gonna go explore!" though before stepping out of the house she checked to make sure that she had her key and wallet on her, after this she stepped out into the sunny air outside.

Turning left she walked past the Kudo house and the neighboring house, where a strawberry-blonde girl was sweeping the walkway. Gabe waved as she passed, though the girl didn't return the gesture. She must've been shy, Gabe thought as she went on her way.

Gabe had no idea where she was. She wasn't lost, nor was she panicking, she just noticed that she had no idea where the hell she was. Gabe sighed and cursed her feet, which always led her where ever they wished if she didn't pay attention. Looking around there wasn't that much interesting there except maybe the arcade... the arcade? Gabe turned to fully look at the establishment and read the name of the place "Game on Game", it wasn't too imaginative but it called Gabe to enter. Japanese games were the best after all, even if she'd never stepped into an arcade before. Well, there's a first time for everything.

The first thing she noticed was the _noise_. It was hard to hear anything and if you were there with a friend you'd have to raise your voice to be heard. The next thing she noticed was the photo-machines, something she'd never seen before, she guessed in was a Japanese thing. With an anime-sweatdrop Gabe realized that her sister would insist taking a few pictures if she ever stumbled into this place. Because Blackmail. That's why. With a nervous laugh she ventured further in, wanting to play games, when she came across one that she fell in love with. It was a first person-shooter where the controller was a gun, or as close to a gun as you could get in an arcade, it had a cable running from the clip to the machine and it was pink but otherwise it looked real. With a grin she seized the controller at the same time as another seized the other one. Looking up she came face to face with a blonde, blue-eyed woman with glasses, a short dress, high heels and what looked like a school-uniform jacket.

As Gabe took the controller and brought her hand to her shoulder, her other hand resting on her hip, she asked "Two-player?" with a grin.

The older woman smirked "You're on."

_A couple weeks later_

Conan was feeling like he shouldn't have gotten out of bed that morning as he watched his childhood friend and her friend laughing at a picture he'd been forced into. He was a detective, not a burglar, for crying out loud. It was quite offending in his opinion. He sighed as the two girls started having an argument about the wedding photo-machine and turned to look at the other people around the entrance of the arcade. He'd never got why people liked these places, they were so noisy. Not to mention a waste of money. He'd never really gotten the point of video-games in general. Well, he had, he just didn't play them. He wasn't good at them. At all.

"Hey! C'mon, c'mon!"

Conan turned his head towards the voice, just as Sonoko and Ran were looking for the source. He saw a woman in revealing clothes with short blonde hair and glasses, wearing high heels. She was owning the shooter game. But what drew Conan's attention was the figure behind her, wearing jeans, black boots, a green army jacket and a red baseball cap.

"Gabe! -neechan." he trailed off, glancing at Ran to see if she'd noticed his blunder.

But she hadn't, she was too busy looking at the blonde woman in astonishment. This told Conan that the two knew the woman, she was probably the "Jodie-sensei" they'd been talking about only seconds before. As they made their way over they could see that the two players were very good at the game and that Jodie was terrific at it, good enough to show off her skills by doing tricks with the fake gun. Gabe, however, just kept her eyes on the screen, though she was smiling freely, obviously enjoying herself.

"Perfect." came the announcement when the game ended, indicating that the two had hit every target.

Both women made the same pose as the figure on the screen, a hand on their hip and blowing at the barrel of the gun where smoke would rise from were it a real gun. Though, they didn't do it the same way, instead they were mirroring each other, elbow to elbow, before Gabe grinned and put the gun in it's holder.

By then Ran, Sonoko and Conan had made their way over to them. "Jodie-sensei..." Ran started but trailed off.

"What are you doing at an arcade?" Sonoko finished.

The now confirmed Jodie-sensei turned to face them after she'd put down the controller "Oh, Mouri-san, Suzuki-san." she politely greeted them in heavily accented Japanese.

Gabe, however had no such inhibitions and with a huge grin exclaimed "Conan-kun!", spreading her arms wide in excitement. Conan wasn't sure if he should feel flattered or not.

However, Ran's first comment garnered some attention and a few people started asking about it, making Jodie-sensei wave her hands in front of her and say that they had the wrong person while dragging her two students away to the small kiosk inside the establishment, there were also a few coin machines where you put in paper money and got coins instead to play the games. Once there she explained that she loved Japanese games and that was the reason she'd asked for a job in Japan, she also asked that the two girls kept it secret since the information may cause her to lose her job.

"Hey, Conan-kun, do you want anything? I'm gonna buy chocolate." Gabe asked the boy who was silently staring at Jodie.

"Uh..." Conan wasn't sure how to react to the question, but with the arcade being packed with people and thus quite hot he asked "Do they have juice?" he almost facepalmed at the question, he was seventeen for crying out loud.

"Let's go see." Gabe answered and took his hand, leading him over and lifting him so that he could see what the small kiosk had to offer.

After a few seconds he pointed at the orange juice, which seemed to have the least sugar in it, Gabe nodded and purchased said juice box and a small bar of chocolate before setting him down and handing him his juice. Conan was thankful for the drink since it was obvious that they weren't leaving any time soon, especially when Ran and Sonoko's English teacher dragged them to a virtual reality game by the name of "Great Fighter Spirit". She got Ran to try it and after the first shock of feeling pain if you got hit she beat the beginner level. Sonoko revealed to Jodie that Ran was a karate-champion while Gabe stared bemusedly at them, not mentioning that you didn't need to move as much as Ran was, which in itself made the game unrealistic and thus all too easy.

Then out of nowhere the screen showed another character, this one saying "I'll kill you." in very bad English.

"Huh, someone's joining?" Ran asked.

Jodie pointed out the player behind them, a cocky-looking young man whom Gabe had seen in the arcade before, he really got on her nerves and she would admit that she'd been childish and taped a "Kick me" sign to his back one time when he'd been mocking other people in the establishment.

Of course, Ran accepted the challenge, since she too had her own pride which got in the way of thinking. Gabe understood perfectly, her own pride often got her into arguments but she tried to tone it down when working on cases, it wouldn't do to make the police dislike her. She wasn't surprised when Ran lost, she was a noob after all. She couldn't help the knee-jerk reaction of showing him the finger when he sat in the seat Ran had vacated as they walked away, Sonoko being especially miffed by the dude's attitude. Seriously, Gabe could let harassing normal people slide, barely, but kicking an employee when he was emptying the coin container of the game was a whole different thing. She could feel the disapproving stare of the six-or-seven-year-old boy who was still drinking the juice she'd bought him.

Looking down at him she could see his frown and said "If you frown too much your face will get stuck that way." before turning away, missing his coughing as he inhaled some of the juice.

Conan meanwhile, after getting his breathing under control, stared after her incredulously. How old did she think he was, five? He hadn't had that phrase directed at him since he was a kid. Though, now that he looked like an elementary student... he was probably going to hear a lot of it. Conan sighed as he threw away his juice box before trotting over to the group of females.

**Reviews make the world go round!**


	7. Ch 7 Anime rules

Gabe knew that if anyone could hear her thoughts, they would think her tactless, morbid, or just downright cruel, but she'd been waiting for someone to die. It was one of the rules of the Detective Conan universe, according to her sister, that where ever Conan or Shinichi went, death was inevitable, either before, during, or after he'd been there. Either that or a kidnapping, robbery, or bombing. So she'd been expecting the death, even if she hadn't been sure just _who_ would die. She couldn't say she felt that remorseful. Sure, death was not something to celebrate but it was hard to mourn a person you disliked. At the moment, Gabe was sitting in the seat for the racing game Jodie had been playing, waiting for the police to arrive. This was actually a great chance to introduce herself as a detective, get some recognition, worm her way into their minds so that they would think of her if they got stuck. It was selfish but a chance was a chance, she wasn't going to let this one pass.

"_It's sad, how cruel and jaded I feel._" she said to herself in Finnish, so that no one would understand her "_I wonder if this world is affecting me, or if it's a coping mechanism. Perhaps it's payment..._" she continued as she took off her cap "Toukakoukan... ka?" she mused.

It didn't take long for the police to get there and Gabe was tempted to introduce herself immediately but refrained from doing that in fear of embarrassing herself. Instead she waited until they were questioned about the case. It seemed like Inspector Megure was familiar with Ran, Sonoko and Conan, and thus forgot to ask who Gabe and Jodie were. Gabe wasn't sure if she should feel insulted or worry about the oversight of not asking who the other two in the temporary group were. Though she had to admit, seeing the man struggle with saying "Policeman" was hilarious.

"You're still saying it wrong, but while on the subject of introductions, my name is Ojanen Gabrielle, I'm a detective who just moved into the Beika district and I'd like to assist in this case." Gabe said respectfully.

Megure's face told her that he was probably thinking "Oy, oy, another detective?" and she couldn't blame him, there were way too many detectives in this world she'd fallen into. The man recovered quickly and coughed into his hand "Thank you for the offer." before he turned to the other officer, who Gabe thought was named Takagi and asked "The next problem is how did he die during a videogame?"

"According to witnesses there was no one suspicious near him during the fight. The victim didn't eat anything during the game, which rules out suicide."

As Takagi reported to his superior, Gabe took a closer look at the body. He looked like he'd been strangled, but there was nothing around his neck nor were there any marks of someone strangling him. This meant one thing. Poison. The only question was how it was administered. Like Takagi had said, he hadn't ingested anything, but with him being bound to the game chair it was all too easy to prick him with a needle, any shout of pain would be lost in the sea of sounds which usually occupied arcades, not to mention that arcades were dark, no one would notice anything since no one would be paying attention to the people gaming, but to the big monitor. Gabe unconsciously sidestepped out of the Inspector's way when he came to investigate the body as she continued to think, her hands coming up in front of her face as she started drawing invisible lines. It was something which helped her thought process and her ability to link things with each other. It also sometimes made her feel like Adrian Monk... She drew up a simple mind map: (Victim)–(poison though injection)–(dead possibly during fight)–(people near victim)-(game partner)-(employee)-(my group)–(possible enemies)-(mahjongg player).

She sighed as she came back to the real world, just in time to see Conan scaling the game chair to look at the victim's face. She felt her brow twitch and her face fall into the classic "Anime sweat-drop" face.

"Maybe he was poisoned?" Conan said in his more childish voice, making the two officers look at him "Because, look, he looks like he died from suffocation, but there are no marks around his neck-" he was cut off when Takagi lifted him away from the body.

Megure then proceeded to deny this, since the victim hadn't eaten anything before playing and at the point where Ran agreed and Sonoko pointed out the fact that he'd beat Ran before switching seats Gabe felt the need to interfere.

"You seem to forget that poison can be administered though piercing the skin with a poison-tipped needle." she said dryly, stepping closer and laying her hand on Conan's head "Isn't that right, Conan-kun?"

Conan let out an agreeing "Un!" and nodded before Megure once again started to disprove the theory, claiming someone would've seen it and the victim would've yelled out. At this point Conan intervened again.

"Demo, Keibu-san, haven't you forgotten something?" he asked, before gesturing at their surroundings when Megure looked at him "This is an arcade, it's quiet now but usually you can't hear anything, besides it's usually dark so that the games can function properly. His hands and feet were bound to the chair so he couldn't have defended himself."

Megure was finally convinced and ordered an autopsy, Gabe was actually glad it had taken so long to convince the man, it wouldn't do for him to be gullible after all. She found herself admiring the man and wondered what would've happened if she'd been put in the role of an officer under the man, instead of a P.I. Gabe guessed she'd never know, but she was sure she would've enjoyed it. Even if she disliked direct orders directed at her.

In the end, Jodie pointed out that the security camera would have recorded everything and thus the group, the two policemen and the two Conan had said had been near the victim went to the monitor room. Gabe had to give the boy credit, most children wouldn't speak up, in fear that they were wrong or that the culprit would do something to them. Gabe knew the child knew this possibility, he was a genius after all. As they were walking, Gabe heard the sound of something metallic hitting against the floor at even intervals. It sounded similar to the sound which came when one walked across a tiled floor with a small rock stuck to the bottom of one's shoes. Which would mean it came from someone's shoe. Which probably meant someone had stepped on the poisoned needle. For it to stick to a shoe would mean there was something holding it there. This could be done with chewing gum. This meant the fellow gamer could be responsible, he could have easily hid the needle in a cigarette, easily accessible and concealed by the cigarette-pack. The only problem was the fight they'd witnessed... unless...

Conan frowned as they walked to the monitor room, trying to figure out the sound he was hearing. It sounded like metal rubbing against the floor, but he didn't know where it was coming from. Just that it started when the employee-

With this sudden realization he looked at the employee that was showing them the way to the monitor-room. The thing making noise was stuck to the young man's shoe, he was sure of it. But how to confirm it? He jerked a little when a hand settled on his head, looking up curiously he saw Gabe looking down on him with a fond look.

"You're a brave little boy, you know that?" she asked quietly, only for his ears to hear.

"Huh?" Conan asked, bewildered.

"Most children wouldn't speak up in these sort of things, either for fear that no one will listen or that the adult responsible will hurt them in some way. I know you know these possibilities, but you did it anyway. Though no one else seems to think about this, then I'll be the one to tell you this, you're very brave. Never change, Conan-kun." she said with a smile.

Conan looked up at her, unsure how to respond.

In all honesty, she was a little strange, talking to a little kid so much and being so friendly with him. Though maybe he was reading too much into it, since he was actually seventeen and not seven. He looked at her when she removed her hand.

"Sorry, I'm probably making you uncomfortable, but you see... I'm going to become an aunt soon and I thought I should learn how to interact with kids... I'm not sure what's appropriate and since I'm a detective I handle corpses, not kids. I thought about babysitting, but if I get a case while on the clock then I'd have to take the kid with me and that's a big no-no... but then the gathering of detectives happened and I saw you. You're a child, but it would most likely to be okay to take you with me if I do get a case and Ran seems to drag you everywhere she goes so it would probably ease her a little if there was someone she could entrust you with... so whadda ya say? I'll teach you anything you wanna know, I'll make you a detective." the woman proposed, looking him in the eye.

Conan stared at her. This woman... was presenting him with the ultimate golden opportunity... he would have a real excuse for knowing things, she probably wouldn't hit him over the head for noticing something, she would listen to him, she wouldn't need to be led around like Kogoro-occhan and, if she got really well known she'd maybe attract those men in black... but wait... she said she was going to become an aunt, he'd heard her mention her sister, which most likely meant that her sister was pregnant. Could he really in good conscience put a baby at risk? But then again, she seemed capable of taking care of herself.

With a bright smile he nodded. Gabe grinned and picked him up before setting him on her shoulders "Great."

Gabe was ecstatic. She had a child she could train being an aunt with. In real life this wouldn't work but this was an anime so there was no real problem. Besides, Mouri got away with what would be considered child abuse anywhere else. Maybe, with luck, she could steal the spotlight. Yes, it was a horribly mean thing to do, but the things she'd heard about the man were not flattering. He had some good qualities but they weren't enough for Gabe to like him, the man was useless unless he became serious. The only good thing about him was his love for his daughter. Perhaps she could use that. Or maybe not. She had no idea what would happen if she interfered too much. It was frustrating that she hadn't listened to her sister's gushing about the series. She was useless. Like a wet Mustang. The thought almost made her laugh, because it was really funny if you were a Fullmetal Alchemist fan. And Gabe? She was a die-hard fan. This was saying a lot because there wasn't much that got her as exited and hyped up as Fullmetal Alchemist. Except for maybe... her train of thought was cut off when they arrived to the monitor-room.

The video-feed revealed some things Gabe needed and Conan provided the final nail in the murderer's proverbial coffin. A gum wrapper, what a simple yet effective concealment. But really, what a cruel poison to use. TTX, Tetrodotoxin, found in pufferfish, known as Fugu in Japan, a delicacy to many and in Gabe's opinion, not worth the risk eating. Conan-kun had once again been lifted onto her shoulders as she made her way to the place where the murder took place with all the others. She had a show to plan.

"Nee, Conan-kun." she whispered to the boy.

"Hm?"

"Will you help me set up a deduction show?" she asked, looking up.

"Ok."

Gabe smiled "Good, here's what you need to do..."


	8. Ch 8 Mentally male, physically female

They were standing near the game where the corpse had once been. Gabe listened to the police officers talking and the culprit trying to lead the conversation to somewhere else, but Gabe wasn't fooled and, she knew, neither was her new-found apprentice. She stood up straight from her position, lazily leaning against the racing game's seat, and clapped her hands.

Once she knew she had everyone's attention she smirked devilishly "It seems, hannin-san, that you have moved your game-pieces into "check", but I, in just three moves, shall move mine into "check mate". I shall show you, ladies and gentlemen, how this murder really took place." she said theatrically, enjoying every minute "First, I'd like to borrow Takagi-keiji and Ran-san, to demonstrate the victim's last game."

After a moment's hesitation the two moved to do as they were asked, Gabe gave Conan a nod to signal that he should go and tell Ran to pick a male character and Takagi to not only pick a female character but also use his necktie as a blindfold, making sure that he wouldn't be able to counterattack Ran. With these things done, the game started, showing everyone what actually happened. The female character was getting brutally beaten by the male character and everyone thought it was Takagi-keiji winning, but once the game was over and Megure-keibu took off the helmet the truth was shown to them.

"This is what happened, in a manner of speaking, the victim, Bito Kengo was not the one playing as Beika Ceasar, but as Haido Lucas. The one who played as Beika Ceasar was the murderer, Shimizu Takayasu!" Gabe said, staring at him imploringly.

The man scoffed and backed away, waving his hands "Stop joking. Show me some proof."

Gabe smiled "Iiwa, you stuck Bito-san under the arm with a poison-tipped needle, stuffed in a cigarette to make it easier to handle, you also attached it to a gum-wrapper with gum you most likely found in the ash tray and then set it on the ground, this can be proven by the fact that said murder weapon is stuck on the underside of this worker's shoe." she said, pointing at the worker in question, making him look at the bottoms of his shoes and finally take it off and handing it to Megure, who peeled the wrapper off, exposing the cigarette equipped with a needle "After poisoning Bito you ended his game, started a new one, made him choose Haido Lucas, put that on the floor and went to the other station, choosing Beika Ceasar and making it seem like you lost the game, this was not noticed since you didn't end the game, because then Bito's screen would've shown "YOU LOSE". But, there was an element you did not count on... inside the coinbox there are only three coins at the moment, one from Bito, one from Takagi-keiji... and one from you. If a coin with your fingerprints is found in that box, then it will be hard evidence that you killed Bito-san. Well? Am I wrong?"

The man was silent for a moment before smiling bitterly "My fingerprints are there... because I tightly gripped that coin before I put it in. Because I wanted this to be my last game."

With this, Gabe turned away, breathed in, exhaled and crouched down, drained from her performance. Her eyes were closed as she rested the back of her hand on her forehead, her head bent forwards. At the sound of footsteps she opened her left eye and glanced in the same direction, catching sight of Conan, who was looking at her curiously. With a smile she opened her eyes, lifted her head, took off her cap and put it on the child's head.

"Thank you, little Watson." she said as the cap slid to rest crookedly on his head, too big for him.

Conan blinked at her before smiling again, letting out one of those childish half-laughs which were a trademark of his, she'd noticed. She smiled before standing up, patting her pants free of imaginary dirt.

"Well, let's go ask if Ran-san needs a babysitter for you, neh?"

Neither of them really knew how they'd gotten Ran to agree, but Gabe had become Ran's go-to person when she wanted to go out and not drag Conan along, she was a teenager after all, even if she was a very nice, kindhearted girl she was still a teenager at the core. Ran had also started to hang out with Mielikki and had reacted like any other female with maternal instincts to the fact that she was pregnant. There was much squealing. Both Gabe and Conan had covered their ears at the sounds coming from the living room. While they were outside. On the opposite side of the house. It was ridiculous.

Conan had been surprised the first time Hakuba had made a call to the house, since he hadn't thought Gabe and he were friends. He had been even more surprised when Gabe told him that the detective called because of her sister, not her. Gabe-san had admitted to him that she'd done a little match-making and so far both Hakuba and Mielikki seemed like they would most likely start dating, even if they didn't admit it to anyone, even themselves. Conan, too had been surprised by the fact that Mielikki was pregnant but didn't judge, since he found it impossible to dislike the energetic mother-to-be, even though he much preferred Gabe's company.

Gabe was teaching him all sorts of things about being a detective, some he knew, some he didn't, other things were from a whole other perspective which for some reason made sense, even though he was still sure she was somewhat insane. Though that might be their cultures clashing. Though he had to give her some credit, she was much more polite and knowledgeable about Japanese things than most tourists were, or even some of the foreigners currently living in Japan. Though a lot of things she taught him made him truly stop and stare at her, because there was just no good reason for her to be teaching, what she thought was, a seven-year-old how to disarm bombs. Never mind that he already knew how to do this. Times like that made him wonder if she somehow knew, but then there would be moments that made him dismiss the thought. Like how she would feed him treats made by her sister, moments such as those told him that the woman still thought he was a kid, though a very smart one. He'd even tried to eavesdrop on her when she spoke with her sister about him, but he understood nothing of the language she was speaking. It made him wonder where they were from. He knew that she spoke three other languages besides Japanese and one of those three was English, he wondered what the other two were.

But all in all, Gabe-san was a somewhat responsible adult, which was why Conan had suggested she switch with Hakase to bring him and the other kids skiing when the man caught a cold. Haibara hadn't been happy about it but she could find nothing wrong with the woman once they met up that morning. Conan had been slightly speechless when he noticed Gabe-san had dyed her hair a vibrant blue since she'd last babysat him.

_Oy, oy._ He thought with his eyebrow twitching, did she have to be so extreme?

"Yo, Conan-kun." she greeted him.

"Ohayo, Gabe-neechan." Conan answered automatically, before introducing Haibara "This is Haibara Ai."

Gabe turned to look at the girl "Ohayo, Haibara-chan."

"Ohayo, Ojanen-san." Haibara answered in her normal tone, which resembled monotone.

Gabe nodded before asking "Alright, do you have everything you need? Any allergies or illnesses I need to know about? Asthma, for example?"

"We have everything and no one has an illness you should worry about." Conan answered.

Gabe nodded and spun around on her heel "Yosh, we're picking up the others now, both of you in front so I can see you."

Conan and Haibara went in front of her while she carried Haibara's bag, Conan had to carry his own because as Gabe had said "You're a guy, deal with it." when he'd pointed out that she was a woman she'd responded "In gender only, my personality says otherwise."

Once they'd picked up the others they boarded the bus they were using, since Gabe's sister needed their car and Gabe couldn't take them on her motorcycle, besides, Gabe had yet to buy a car that she could use in Japan. They got seats far back on the children's insistence and because there were three free benches near each other.

"Nee, Gabe-neechan?" Ayumi began as the bus started rolling again "Why did you pick us up at our houses instead of having us come to Hakase's place?" she asked when the woman turned to look at her.

Conan and the others also wanted to know, the real kids because they usually always gathered at Agasa's and the two false children because they wanted to know her motives.

Gabe blinked at her before answering the question "I am paranoid, I am the adult and thus you five are my responsibility, at least at the moment, I can't let anything happen to you on my watch, whether or not I have laid eyes on you yet. Because I picked you up I could make sure nothing happened to you on the journey, but if I had had you come to the professor's and something had happened to you on the way, I would be the one responsible. It is an adult's responsibility to keep children safe." she ended with a serious face.

Conan blinked, not sure what to make of the speech. At that moment a couple of familiar faces entered the bus and Haibara demanded to switch seats with him, he didn't notice who'd climbed on until the two were right in front of them and he heard the kids exclaim "Dr. Araide!"

Gabe looked up from her Terry Pratchett book at the sound of the kids exclaiming a name she was sure she'd heard before. When she spotted the man, and the woman behind him, she couldn't say she recognized him, the woman was a different story.

"Jodie!" Gabe said with a smile.

"Hi, Partner." the woman said in English, "Partner" was a nickname the woman had given Gabe since they were gaming partners, Gabe had even invited Jodie to her house to play console games but Jodie had yet to take her up on her offer.

Unfortunately, Gabe didn't have a nickname for the woman, she was never good at coming up any nicknames that made sense to the person she'd nicknamed.

She was shaken out of her musings when Jodie hugged Araide's arm and said "Hi, Cool Kid. We meet again~!" oh, right, her sister had said once that Jodie nicknamed Conan "Cool Kid", she had no idea why, but she could see where it came from. The kid was hella cool, after all.

Gabe put away her book and leaned on her left arm "How's teaching working out for ya?"

"I'm doing great, today I'm on a date with Dr. Araide to the Ueno Art Museum!" the woman said, as energetic as always.

Araide denied this, embarrassed, as he sat down in front of Haibara and Conan "Uh, I ran into her at the bus stop."

"You shouldn't embarrass a lady!" Jodie said to him before sitting down beside him.

"We wouldn't want weird rumors going around the school, would we?"

"Oh! Yes."


	9. Chapter 9 Conan causes coughing-fits

**Firecaster-hikaru****: Thank you for that awesome review, and while I agree that Shinichi and Ran don't match, I can't say I ship Kudo with Haibara. I just can't picture them together. I'm trying to stick to canon-pairings, even if they are irritating, but Hakuba is free game so I'm not complaining about that. I'm not sure if I should make Conan and Ai move, since Ai living with Agasa is not something I really want to change and Conan living with the Mouris is something that plays a big role in the plot. I don't even like Ran, to be honest, but as long as Kogoro has cases I can't really take Conan away. I also don't like Ai enough to have her as Gabe's apprentice like Conan. Don't worry, I plan to give Conan a wake-up call in how lucky he really is to be alive after several encounters with criminals, plus have him think about his "not showing people how smart he is" I mean seriously, people could easily mistake him for a genius, I don't understand what problem Gosho has with it, sinc eevery adult vecomes super suspicious about his intellect, except JODIE, who's American. Anime world rules are weird, especially DC anime rules. I hope you like this chapter.**

Gabe chuckled silently and shook her head and was about to take her book back out again when she spotted them. Two men at the front of the bus, clad in complete skiing gear, goggles and everything. It didn't sit right with her and her heart jumped to her throat when she saw the gun. She was chaperoning five kids and they were caught in a bus hijacking. This was bad, very, very bad. If it was only her there then nothing would be wrong, but she had to protect five kids at the moment. She couldn't do anything to risk their safety. None of these thoughts made it through her pokerface, unless you counted her breathing speeding up, which was not good, not good at all. She gave her cellphone to the second hijacker without any fuss and instead glanced around the bus, not only checking up on her charges but looking for a third hijacker. It was a thing in bus hijackings, letting the people think there are only x amount of hijackers when there's actually x hijackers +1 hijacker. Like Light Yagami had pointed out in Death Note, even if it was just a ploy to get Ray Penber's name. Though besides keeping an eye on things she also listened to what the other hijacker was saying into the phone, hoping to get a clue to their identities. When the name Kunio Yashima was uttered she knew what was going on. These three robbers needed their partner back to be able to sell the jewels they'd stolen. She remembered reading about the case in the newspaper. She now knew that there was an accomplice, probably in the back row, so that they could keep an eye on everyone else on the bus. Gabe jerked when she heard the gun firing behind her. She whipped her head to look back with wide eyes, really hoping no one was shot but when she laid her eyes on the scene she became suspicious. The robber had shot at, but not hit, a woman who was chewing gum, this was the same woman she suspected had talked back to the hijacker, which was even more suspicious. Who the hell talked back to an armed bad guy? Their accomplice, that's who. To establish that they were not accomplices they needed to show the others that by causing a scene, the fact that the accomplice was a woman helped, no one ever suspected the women for some reason. But unknown to them, this made their ploy all the more obvious to Gabe, the CM fan that she was. But she needed proof before trying to tell Conan.

Gabe was pretty sure Jodie was trying to give her a heart-attack, especially with that stunt she pulled to disable the hijacker's gun. Did she have to trip him and risk getting shot? Gabe started coughing when she'd seen that Jodie had caused the man to fall and had barely been able to calm her breathing down, but she still coughed every once in a while. She didn't notice Conan staring at her, too busy keeping her breathing in check through her stress. Then it started again when one of the robbers came back and took Conan's mini-phone. She tried to remember if she'd heard anything before the man had come over and as she glanced back she remembered a faint popping sound. The woman was peeling gum from her face with her left hand. Gabe's coughs would've disturbed the message if the accomplice was the coughing man and the two robbers didn't have any earpieces, which only left the woman. Gabe coughed for a while before she got her breathing under control and reached for her pocket. Her hand never made it that far when she spotted Conan under his seat reaching for one of the ski bags laid out on the floor. Before she could tell him to stop the robber had arrived.

Conan looked up at the robber with some fear as the man asked if he wanted to die that badly. He heard Gabe-san once again start coughing and a glance told him it was an even worse fit than before. Before the robber could actually pull the trigger to end his life, Dr. Araide jumped in, literally, and shielded him with his own body.

"Stop it! The child was just curious! And your demands were made! If you kill any one of us, isn't it going to ruin your plan?"

The hijacker didn't like his attitude "What did you say..." he said threateningly, but was stopped by his partner.

"Stop it, what if the bullet hits the bag instead?"

That sentence confirmed Conan's suspicions, the bags were bombs after all. When he sat back down he tried to get Haibara to help but noticed the scared expression on her face. Could it be? Could one of _those guys_ be on the bus? Unfortunately, even if there was, he couldn't focus on them. He needed to focus on the hijackers and the method they were using to communicate.

"Don't take too many risks, Cool Kid. You'll get your chance! You don't have to be scared!" Jodie said as she looked at him, making Conan look at her "We'll be saved soon."

"I hope so." Conan replied honestly, just before Haibara grabbed his hand, making him look at her.

"What's your name, Little Red Riding Hood?" Jodie asked, her attention too on Haibara.

Conan was silent for a moment before deciding on his actions "She's a girl I met on the bus, but she's really scared, so could you please not talk to her?" he lied easily, slipping into his more childish persona.

"Oh, sorry!" Jodie exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly.

"Hey! What are you guys doing!"

"Jodie-san, please do not provoke them." Araide said to the woman.

"Oh, yes!" she replied, sitting down, but not before whispering "Let's talk about it later."

With that Conan focused once again on who out of the three in the back was communicating with the two in the front. He had to exclude the coughing man, since Gabe-san had started to have coughing fits as soon as the robbers began their hijacking and the old man with the hearing aid since he could not see any earpieces on the robbers and the other two would notice him talking. This only left the woman, but there was no way the loud chewing could be heard all the way in the front. He had noticed them looking in the rear-view mirror, but he wasn't sure why-

"Hey girl!"

Conan snapped his head to the side, where a robber was standing by Gabe-san, who was holding something in her right hand "What are you doing?!"

"It's medicine." Gabe responded and Conan stared at the object in her hand. Was it...

_Gabe nodded at them before asking "Alright, do you have everything you need? Any allergies or illnesses I need to know about? Asthma, for example?"_

"_We have everything and no one has an illness you should worry about." Conan answered._

Conan looked at the three behind them again, narrowing his eyes. Someone had once again alerted the robbers, but who? And how?

Gabe breathed easier as she tucked it away in her pocket again, before looking behind her. After confirming her suspicions she once again turned her gaze to the five children she was responsible for. She needed to end this somehow. She looked down as the robbers called for Araide and the coughing man to go to the front of the bus. She needed to signal Conan. Digging in her pockets she found a small back of gum and popped one into her mouth. As she started chewing she looked at her apprentice and once he glanced in her direction she looked at him pointedly while chewing, before pulling at the gum in her mouth and putting it back in. The boy nodded and Gabe knew that her message was received "It's the woman chewing gum." Message delivered, she spat out the gum and let Conan do his thing, because he was in a much better position than Gabe.

Conan smirked at Gabe-san's message, so she'd also noticed, even in her condition. He quickly wrote a message to Jodie-san before throwing the Detective Boys memo pad at her ankle. Soon he received her lipstick and he smirked almost evilly. Taking out the DB badge he waited for the opportune moment. That moment came when they "took a hostage", the woman chewing gum. Once she was at the front he coughed into the badge, making the others take them out. Once they were looking at him he tapped at his ear, telling them to listen to the badge.

"Put the badge to your ears and listen. Do exactly as I say. Don't worry, they can't see us in this darkness and they're less alert since they think their plan is going perfectly. Once the bus exits the tunnel is going to be our only chance, got it?"

Gabe had to hand it to Conan, he was brilliant and she had a feeling that he probably didn't need her "Detective-tutoring" but there were some things which she wanted to tell him, especially since they were such obvious things that most wouldn't think about them. One of the first things she'd told the boy was "When in a tight spot, use anything available, which means not only the materials that are at hand, but your imagination as well." this plan of his was the perfect example of doing just that. Who would think to use lipstick in such a way? Besides her sister, of course. She always took lipstick with her because you could write with it easily on any surface.

_If he can do this on his own... why does he stay? Does he enjoy my company, or is he using my teachings as an excuse for knowing things?_ She asked herself as she looked at him, before fixing her gaze forward _...it doesn't matter. I enjoy his company and will soak it up while I can. I can only hope that he'll see me as a mentor at the very least. Sa, show us your deduction magic, Meitantei Conan._

When the bus neared the end of the tunnel, the hijackers told the driver to speed up once more. The one holding "the hostage" said that if he did as told they would all walk away alive, but...

"Yeah, right... You're planning on killing us either way..." Conan said in a matter-of-fact tone which was, unfortunately, quite hilarious since he was currently in a seven-year-old's body.

"What!?" one of the hijackers yelled.

"The only time a criminal would reveal his face to the hostages is when he plans to kill them all, right? You better do something before we're all killed..." he trailed off, raising the bomb he and Gabe-san were holding "by this bomb!" he finished once it was high enough.

"I'll make this brat shut up!"

"No! Don't shoot!"

"Hn? What's that red writing?"

"Hurry!"

Gabe could only consider the next few moments as chaos as the driver hit the brakes. She had to keep hold of the bomb in her arms as Mitsuhiko and Genta held onto the other bomb and as soon as Conan got his bearing back after the bus had completely stopped he used his watch to take out one of the hijackers. Gabe was having trouble concentrating as she started coughing again. She felt as if she wasn't getting enough air but she tried to suppress her coughs, not wanting to drop the bomb. It had been a long time she'd been this stressed, she blamed Conan. Her lungs hadn't started acting up until she started interacting with the boy. When her coughs abated enough she could hear the woman panicking after looking at her watch.

"The bombs are gonna blow!"

"What?!" Gabe asked, looking at the bomb in her arms.

She quickly set it down as someone, probably the driver, pushed the button to open the doors. Soon everyone was running out of the bus and Gabe tried her best to keep the kids within her sights. When she saw Conan stopping she resisted the urge to yell at him and instead took his hand and dragged him along, yelling at the woman who must've been an officer that bombs were going to blow. She let go of Conan once they were close to the other kids and she counted them, just when she had the horrible realization that one was missing, Ayumi spoke up.

"Where's Ai-chan?"

Gabe didn't even pause to think. She stopped and turned, her coat flapping from the motion as she started running back, yelling "Conan, keep an eye on them!" over her shoulder.

It didn't take her long to enter the bus and after spotting Haibara's red coat she picked up a gun, shot at the rear window as she ran forward, grabbed the child while dropping the gun and jumped through the window, right before the bombs exploded.


End file.
